Consumer Cultures

This week I learnt a lot about the power of advertising and the way in which advertising creates ‘needs’ in people that they never knew they had. After watching one of the first T.V. advertisements, an advert for toothpaste played on ITV in 1955, it was clear to me how much advertising has developed since it began. The SR Gibbs toothpaste advert was very straight to the point and presented as a factual piece of film to inform people of the benefits of using this toothpaste. Whether the information presented in this advert was actually true is another matter, but we do know that the way in which this advert was put across was very different to adverts nowadays. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, a new type of advertising began, known as emotional based advertising. This was when advertising campaigns played on people’s insecurities and desires. These types of advertising campaigns, rather than just stating what the product is and what it can do, would often depict images of domestic situations, meaning that consumers would relate to the advert more easily. These advertisement campaigns would show their product as being the answer to all the consumer’s problems. For example, this beer advert:

A situation such as burning the dinner would usually be a disaster for a woman in the 1950’s but this advert shows that her husband doesn’t mind because he still has his favourite beer. Therefore this advert is not only selling a product but is also selling the idea of a happy and problem free marriage. Consumers of this product would not only be buying a product but would also be buying into a lifestyle, thinking that there would be both practical and emotional benefits to this product.

Although advertising has come a long way since the 1950’s, emotional based advertising is still widely used to persuade consumers to buy products. For example this advert for wash powder:

It is not just the unique selling point of getting tough stains out of clothes which really sells this product, but it is also the idea that if you use this product, you and your family will be happy. This is proof that emotional based advertising is still going strong today.